In 2011, The Fantasia International Film Festival discount viagra cialis levitra online celebrates its 15th Anniversary. It’s been a wild ride full of amazing, eye-scorching, boundary-busting cinema, and we’ve had some of the genre’s leading lights with us along the way. For the months leading up to this summer’s anniversary edition, we’ll be posting festival overviews highlighting each year’s premieres, special guests and thematic retrospectives, accompanied by rare event photos and personal reminiscences from many of our past guests and collaborators.

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– FANTASIA 2004 –

The 2004 edition of Fantasia returned to Concordia’s Hall and the JA De Sève Theaters from the 8^th of July to the 1^st of August. Over 78,000 spectators attended the event breaking the previous record of 75,000. One of the most remarkable features of the 2004 edition was Komikstok, a special spotlight on films based on comic books and manga.

Blueberry

Several movies formed that spotlight including Arzak Rhapsody, an animated feature film directed by and based on the works of French comic book author Jean Giraud (better known as the legendary Moebius). Blueberry (North-American Premiere) was another film based on a Moebius pills store buy levitra comic book series directed by Yan Kounen and starring Vincent Cassel. Enki Bilal directed Immortel based on his Nikopol trilogy of sci-fi graphic novels (La Foire aux Immortels, La Femme Piège and Froid Équateur). We screened the animated film Corto Maltese: La Cour Secrète Des Arcanes from Italian author Hugo Pratt’s comic book series, alongside the Spanish big budget live-action adventure Mortadelo & Filemon (also spawned from a successful comic book series), and a trio of amazing feature films from Japan: Azumi, based on a manga from Yu Koyama and directed by Ryuhei Kitamura, Battlefield Baseball directed by Yudai Yamaguchi from a manga called ‘’Hell Stadium’’, and a live-action adaptation of Cutie Honey (International Premiere) based on a classic manga by Go Nagai (the latter was directed by Hideaki Anno who also helmed one of the most respected and successful anime series, Neon Genesis Evangelion). We also screened the rare 1967 animated feature film Band of Ninja, based on the manga Ninja Bugeicho and directed by Nagisa Oshima (In the Realm of the Senses).

Arzak Rhapsody

Another spotlight focused on Thai cinema, including screenings of The Bodyguard (Canadian Premiere), The North American Premieres of Bupparahtree, The Macabre Case of Prompiram, Omen, the Canadian Premieres of Saving Private Tootsie and Heaven’s Seven, and the Montreal Premieres of The Tesseract and Pen-Ek Ratanaruang’s gorgeous Last Life in the Universe.

From Japan, Fantasia presented three feature films from the ever-prolific director Takashi Miike – the yakuza films Deadly Outlaw Rekka and Gozu and the North American Premiere of teen J-Horror film One Missed Call. Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s Doppleganger had its Canadian Premiere, while the International Premiere of Hiroki Yamaguchi’s The Bottled Fool (aka Gusher no binds me) was attended by the filmmakers and key cast, and was acquired by Media Blasters within days of this screening (who released it as Hellavator)! The festival also hosted Toshiaki Toyoda’s 9 Souls and Blue Spring, Blessing Bell from Sabu, Takashi Shimizu’s Ju-On:The Grudge, and an impressive selection of anime features from some of the genre’s masters: Porco Rosso from Hayao Miyazaki, Angel’s Egg from Mamoru Oshii, the North American Premiere of Paranoia Agent and Tokyo Godfathers From Satoshi Kon.

Last Life in the Universe

Minoru Kawasaki

Minoru Kawasaki appeared in person to present the International Premiere of The Calamari Wrestler, which would mark the first time his work would be screened outside of Japan. He has since gone on to great acclaim with films like Executive Koala, The World Sinks Except Japan, Rug Cop and more – but it all started at Fantasia with this screening!

From South Korea came the powerful and touching Failan, Bong Joon-ho’s Memories of Murder, Into The Mirror (remade in 2008 by Alexandre Aja as Mirrors), Save The Green Planet, Jailbreakers, A Tale of Two Sisters and The Uninvited, while Hong-Kong offerings included Johnnie To and Wai Ka-Fai’s Running on Karma and four restored prints of the classic Shaw Brothers films 8th Diagram Pole Fighter, Executioners From Shaolin, Golden Swallow and Return To The 36^th Chamber.

Udo Kier

Kim Bodnia

Paul Naschy in Dracula's Great Love

The international section featured a tribute to genre icon Paul Naschy, who came to present two of his classic films, Dracula’s Great Love and The Werewolf Vs The Vampire Women along with the new film Rojo Sangre, which had its International Premiere how to get cialis no prescrip tion with young director Christian Molina in person alongside his star. Other notable guests who presented their films in person included actor Udo Kier for both the Canadian premiere of Veit Helmer’s Gate to Heaven and Jeff Renfroe and Marteinn Thorsson’s One Point Zero,  actress Emily Perkins and producer Paula Devonshire for the World Premiere of Ginger Snaps: The Beginning, Danish cult actor Kim Bodnia with the North American premiere of The Good Cop, famous independent animator Bill Plympton presented 50s sock-hop horror Hair High, Eugenio Mira came in with the International premiere of The Birthday, future Masters of Horror creator Mick Garris appeared with the World Premiere of Riding the Bullet, screenwriter James Handel presented the Canadian Premiere of Julian Richards’ The Last Horror Movie, Sheldon Wilson and much of his cast and crew came in for the Canadian Premiere of Shallow Ground, Chris Fisher hosted the Canadian Premiere of Hillside Strangler, accompanied by the film’s star, actress Brittany Daniel, Lynne Margulies presented the special event Confrontation Act : Andy Kaufman’s Bizarre Journey into Pro Wrestling (which included extensive spoken word and screenings of I’m From Hollywood and My Breakfast With Blassie), Wenzel Storch came to present the International Premiere of his bizarre Journey Into Bliss, and Chris D, esteemed Japanese film historian, American Cinematheque programmer and vocalist for the seminal L.A. punk band The Flesh-Eaters, came to town to present the Canadian Premiere of his directorial feature debut, I Pass For Human.

Several films from old and new masters of genre cinema were presented, among them Alexandre Aja’s Haute Tension, The North American Premiere of Dario Argento’s The Card Player, Vincenzo Natali’s Nothing and the Canadian premiere of Tobe Hooper’s Toolbox Murders.

The Gods of Times Square

Fantasia 2004 also saw the North American premieres of Michael Davis’ Monster Man, Christian James’ Freak Out, Paco Plaza’s Romasanta and Oscar Albar’s Flying Saucers, the Montreal Premiere of Laura Mana’s Killing Words and Richard Sandler’s Gods of Times Square – the latter being one of the first non-genre-related documentaries to screen at Fantasia and the inspiration for what is now the popular Documentaries From the Edge section.

From Quebec, Fantasia hosted the World Premiere of Melantha Blackthorne and Jason Cavalier’s Sinners & Saints,  the North American Premiere of Remy M. Laroechelle’s Macanix, the North American Premiere of Christian Viel’s Recon 2020, and Canadian director Lee Demarbre came in for the Montreal Premiere of his film Harry Knuckles and the Pearl Necklace.

Thundercrack!

The Man Who Saved The World (aka The Turkish Star Wars) is among the most notorious psychotronic films, and received an enthusiastic response from a sold-out crowd of 700 spectators who were shaking their heads in disbelief and holding their bellies from having laughed so hard. Audiences also enjoyed a very rare 16mm print of Curt McDowell’s underground classic Thundercrack! (the only uncut print of the film that exists in the world!) and a rare print of the complete Frankenstein: The True Story, starring late Quebec actor Michael Sarrazin and presented by Le Cineclub/The Film Society. 

The Separation

Short film highlights included the World Premiere of Rick Trembles’ Goopy Spasms, the North American Premieres of Robert Morgan’s extraordinary stop-motion masterpiece The Separation, Hélè ne Cattet & Bruno Forzani’s La Fin de notre amour, Douglas Buck’s Prologue,  Miguel Ángel Vivas’ I‘ll Se e You in my Dreams and Mariano Baino’s Never Ever After, the Canadian Premieres of Screaming Mad George’s Boy in the Box and Daniel Greaves’ Little Things, as well as Al Kratina’s Crimson, Anouk Whissel’s Itsy Bitsy Spider, Pat Tremblay’s Ritualis, Izabel Grondin’s Les Drujes and Lucile Hadzihalilovic’s La Bouche de Jean-Pierre.

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– FANTASIA 2005 –

The 2005 edition of Fantasia was concentrated into 19 days, compared to the 25 days of 2004, but still attracted 75 000 cinephiles, which represented a proportional increase in attendance of nearly 20%.

Crying Fist

For the first time the festival had an official competition with a jury. Lead by Jury President Érik Canuel, the panel was composed of Patrick Masbourian, Pierre Dalpé, Michèle Grondin, Daniel Andréani and Nabi-Alexandre Chartier. The great leader of the competition was Yuasa Masaaki’s crazy animation film Mind Game, winning the Best Film, Best Director (ex-aequo with Gen Sekiguchi for Survive Style 5+) and Best Script Awards, as well as price of propecia from canada a Special Award for its Visual Accomplishment. Other laureates included Kosuke Matushima’s The Taste of Tea for Best Cinematography, Crying Fist ’s Choi Min-sik for Best Actor and Dark Hours’ Kate Greenhouse for Best Actress. The Séquences 50^th anniversary Award went to Shutter and the L’Écran Fantastique Award went to Survive Style 5+. The audience favoured Survive Style 5+ and The Taste of Tea ex-aequo for Best Asian Film, El Lobo for Best European or American Film, Mind Game for Best Animated Film, Survive Style 5+ for Most Groundbreaking Film, Karukenbo for Best Short Film and Alex Vampire Slayer for Best Quebec DIY Short.

Ray Harryhausen

For the first time in Fantasia’s history, a Lifetime Achievement Award was given to an international genre-cinema craftsman. The very first laureate was Ray Harryhausen, who graced us with his presence, discussed with the audience about his career and presented a few of his rare early works, followed by a screening of Jason and the Argonauts on a new 35mm print.

Tim Sullivan (center) with the Rue Morgue, Fangoria + Fantasia crew

The edition opened with the International Premiere of Yojiro Takita’s Ashura, followed by the Canadian Premiere of Crying Fist, hosted by its Director Ryoo Seug-wan and Producer Syd Lim, who also hosted the North American Premiere of Arahan the following day. The Director and Screenwriter Masaaki Yuasa wowed the audience with Mind Game, presented as a Canadian Premiere. Tim Sullivan came to present the Canadian Premiere of his remake of 2001 Maniacs, joined by actors Christa Campbell and Dylan Edrington. Screenwriter and director Jeff Burr presented the Canadian Premiere of Straight Into Darkness. The International DIY Short Films block attracted the presence of André Kapel from Brazil for 06 Tiros, 60 ML, Fabrice Lambot from France for Le Sang du Châtiment, Josh Townsend and Christian Ray from the US for Loyalty and Graveless. Producer Clark Balderson and actress Selene Luna came to present the Canadian Premiere of Firecracker. Thai Co-Director Buranee Rachjaibun hosted the North American Premiere of Zee Oui.

Mindgame

Masaaki Yuasa, Director of Mind Game

The Small Gauge Trauma block saw the return of Belgian Co-Directors Hélène Cattet and Bruno Forzani for the North American premiere of L’étrange portrait de la dame en jaune, as well as Actress Laura Leigh Hofrichter for Disposer and Christian Viel for Pain Killer. Writer / Director Ti West came to introduce the Canadian Premiere of The Roost along with his Producer and Fantasia darling Director Larry Fessenden. Belgian Screenwriter and Director Harry Cleven came to host the North American premiere of Trouble. The World Premiere OF Shadow: Dead Riot was hosted by its Co-Writter, Fantasia regular and Fangoria managing editor Michael Gingold, as well as Producer Carl Morano. Finally Singapore Director Tzang Merwyn Tong presented the Canadian Premiere of his film A Wicked Tale.

Sigma

On the local front, the World Premiere of La dernière incarnation was hosted by Director Demian Fuica, Producer Benoit Lavallée and Actors Gilbert Turp, Catherine Florent and Leonardo Fuica. A Special Advance screening of Dark Hours was hosted by its Director Paul Fox, Producer Brent Barclay, Screenwriter Wil Zmak and Lead Actors Kate Greenhouse and Aidan Devine. Montreal Writer / Director Jesse Heffring presented the Canadian Premiere of Sigma. Fantasia also screened the International Premiere of  SV Bell’s Purple Glow.

Three master classes were held: Lloyd Kaufman, beloved American independent and father of Tromaville came to present a master class on the ins and outs of indie filmmaking titled How to Make Your Own Damn Movie, which was concluded by a screening of his classic The Toxic Avenger; Joe Coleman, notorious visionary painter and performance artist, made his first-ever Montreal appearance to present a special midnight multimedia show entitled Retinal Stigmatics: An Evening with Joe Coleman where the artist performed live spoken word, projected images of paintings shot on an animation stand and screened rare intense footage; Finally, esteemed comic-book artist and film journalist Stephen R. Bissette was in town to host a pair of slideshow lectures on the early history of horror comics entitled Stephen R. Bissette’s Journeys Into Fear – The History, Heritage, and Censorship of Horror Comics.

A second edition of Komikstok was held, where live feature and animation films, adapted or inspired by comic books, were featured. This included the International Premiere of Cromartie High School, the North American Premiere of Fighter in the Wind and Phantom Master: Dark Hero From Ruined Empire, the Canadian Premiere of Live Freaky! Die Freaky!,  Neighbor Watch No. 13, Otakus in Love andTetsujin-28, as well as the 1971 animation Yasuji No Pornorama – Yacchimae!!

Cromartie High School

Other films on the animation front included the International Premiere of Le portrait de petite Cossette, the North American Premiere of Ghost in the Shell : Stand Alone Complex 2^nd Gig, and the Canadian Premiere of the multi-Fantasia-Awards-winner Mind Game.

A Hong-Kong spotlight saw the screenings of a few premieres and five retrospective titles from the ‘70s, most notably a fully restored print of Fist of Fury (1972), hosted by Bruce Lee’s co-star Nora Miao, and 3 restored prints from the Shaw Brothers. Oxide Pang Chun’s The Eye 2 had its North American Premiere and the Canadian Premiere of Wilson Yip’s White Dragon and Love Battlefield also screened.

The Japanese spotlight saw the International Premiere of Yojiro Takita’s Ashura and Space Police, the North American Premiere of One Missed Call 2 and the Canadian Premieres of Takashi Shimizu’s Ju-On: The Grudge 2, the now-classic Kamikaze Girls and Survive Style 5+ as well as new additions to Fantasia staples: Godzilla: Final Wars and Ultraman: The Next.

The programming from South Korea was particularly rich in premieres, including the North American Premiere of Ryoo Seug-wan’s Arahan, who also presented the Canadian Premiere of his following film Crying Fist (which had won the FIPRESCI Prize at that year’s Quinzaine des Réalisateurs in Cannes). Fighter Fighter in the Wind, Ghost House, Please Teach Me English and Spin Kick also had their North American Premiere. Screening as Canadian Premieres were Another Publick Enemy, Jewel in the Palace, R-Point, Silmido and Some.

Shutter

A follow-up to the 2004 Thai films spotlight included the Canadian Premiere of Banjong Pisanthanakun and Parkpoom Wongpoom’s Shutter (who were later celebrated at Fantasia for their films Alone and 4BIA).

On the European front, Fantasia saw the North American Premieres of Nicolas Winding Pusher II – with Blood on My Hands (Denmark), Atomik Circus – Le Retour de James Bataille (France), The Birthday (Spain), G.O.R.A. (Turkey), Sharks (Denmark) and Trouble (Belgium). Timur Bekmambetov’s Night Watch (Russia) and Night of the Living Dorks (Germany) had their Canadian Premieres.

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– FANTASIA 2006 –

Viy (1967)

2006 marked the 10^th anniversary of the festival. Two special spotlights were presented, one on the emergence of a new wave of Russian genre cinema beginning with the screening of 1967 Russian classic classic Viy (presented by Russian film historian Alla Verlotsky) to contrast with the three new films: science fiction film Aziris Nuna directed by Oleg Kompasov, hosted by producer Sergei Frolov, the North American premiere of Shadowboxing directed by Alexei Sidorov and the  North American premiere of the film JUNK hosted by director Denis Neimand and producer Joseph Bakshiev.

The other spotlight featured an impressive collection of UK films starting with the opening film of the festival The Descent directed by Neil Marshall. Also presented were Broken directed by Adam Mason and Simon Boyes, Evil Aliens directed by Jake West, the North American premiere of The Living and the Dead hosted by it’s director Simon Rumley, Isolation directed by Billy O’brien and Wilderness also hosted by it’s director Michael J. Bassett.

Blood Tea and Red String

Director Robert Morgan (Left)

The festival hosted a mini spotlight of Stop Motion films with Lunacy from one of the masters in the genre, Czechoslovakian filmmaker Jan Svankmajer. Also presented were the Canadian premiere of Blood Tea and Red String directed by Christiane Cegavske and Worlds of Wounded Clay: The Films of Robert Morgan, hosted by Robert Morgan.

There is always an excellent selection of Asian films at Fantasia,with the Japanese offerings traditionally being the most voluminous. 2006 was no exception, withseveral films from renowned filmmakers. Director Shusuke Kaneko brought two films, Azumi 2: Love or Death and the North American premiere of God’s Left Hand, Devil’s Right Hand. Th festival presented The Great Yokai War from directorTakashi Miike, The Funky Forest by Katsuhito Ishii, Strange Circus hosted by its director Sion Sono, Synesthesia, hosted by director Toro Matsuura, The Glamorous Life of Sachiko Hanai directed by Mitsuru Meike, the North American premiere of The All-Out Nine: Field of Nightmares by Yuichi Fukuda, Black Kiss by Makoto Tezka, Executive Koala by Minoru Kawasaki, Meatball Machine by Yudai Yamaguchi, Reincarnation by Takashi Shimizu, Shinobi by Shimoyama Ten, Tokyo Zombie by Sakichi Sato, Train Man by Masanori Murakami, Samurai Commando Mission 1549 by Masaaki Tezuka and Death Trance directed by Yuji Shimomura starring Tak Sakaguchi.

Strange Circus

From Hong Kong the festival presented A Chinese Tall Story directed by Jeff Lau and Seven Swords by Tsui Hark. Also screened were two Shaw Brothers classics: Five Venoms directed by Chang Cheh and Dirty Ho by Chia-Liang Liu. From South Korea A Bittersweet Life directed by Kim Ji-Woon, Murder Take One by Jang Jin, Blood Rain by Kim Dae-Seung, My Scary Girl by Son Jae-Gon, Princess Aurora by  Bang Eun-Jin, Red Shoes by Kim Yong-Gyun, Vampire Cop Ricky by Lee Si-Myung and The Art of Fighting directed by Shin Han-Sol. Films from Thailand included Citizen Dog directed by Wisit Sasanatieng and the North American premiere of Re-Cycle by the Pang Brothers, while from the Philipinnes came The Echo by Yam Laranas.

White of the Eye

Scott Glosserman

Jim Woodring

Our international selection included the North American premiere of Bad Blood from Portugal by directors Tiago Guedes and Frederico Serra, Behind The Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon hosted by it’s director Scott Glosserman, The world premiere of The Descendant hosted by it’s director Phillippe Spurrell, Edmond also hosted by director Stuart Gordon, Gravedancers from Mike Mendez, Ils from David Moreau, the  International premiere of The Kovak Box by Daniel Mozon, Pusher 3 hosted by Nicolas Winding Refn, The Lost hosted by it’s director Chris Sivertson, The Canadian premiere of The Wild Blue Yonder by Werner Herzog, The Woods hosted by director Lucky Mc Kee, The world premiere of 39: A Film By Carroll Mc Kane hosted by director Gary Sherman, the Canadian premiere of Frostbite by Anders Banke, the Canadian premiere of The Visions of Jim Woodring hosted by comic book legend Jim Woodring and finally we presented a rare archival print of White of the Eye from Donald Cammell.

Erik Canuel (right)

The closing film of the 2006 edition was the memorable world premiere of the homegrown feature film Bon Cop Bad Cop directed by Erik Canuel who also co-wrote the film along with it’s main star Patrick Huard. They both hosted one of the most electric screenings of the festival’s history. The film went on to become one of Canada’s highest grossing films in history.

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– FANTASIA 2007 –

The program of the 2007 edition of the Fantasia Festival was a departure from its predecessors in its massive scale. In response to the ever-growing success of the operation, the team decided to inflate their program from 90 to 130 films. Furthermore, about 20 short film programs were established, half of these dedicated to local productions. To accommodate these important additions, a 3^rd theater is rented at the Concordia University, the DB Clark Theater, which would also host various conferences.

Zoo

2007 also saw the arrival of the new section Documentaries from the Edge, which, as the name indicates, focuses on documentaries with audacity and unusual subjects. Although Fantasia presented documentaries in previous years, the creation of this new platform solidified the genre’s importance to the festival’s overall programming. By regrouping these films under a united category, it became evident that the rich program of the festival wasn’t limited to horror and science-fiction. The public responded with enthusiasm to this initiative, coming in great numbers to projections of Asger Leth’s Ghosts of Cité Soleil, Seth Gordon’s The King of Kong and Robinson Devor’s much anticipated film Zoo. French journalist Yves Montmayeur, in attendance to present his medium-lenght films about great contemporary Asian directors, was given also given a tribute. It only took one summer for the newfound section to become a staple of the festival and a recurring and anticipated part of the festival’s future.

Another remarkable section, Hell is a City: The Cinema of Urban Apocalypse offered various sights of the end of the world, more precisely of the specific moment where chaos takes control of our planet. Running on pure adrenaline, this section saw mutant rats clash with religious fanatics and showcased the work of young American authors, with David Bruckner, Dan Bush and Jacob Gentry’s The Signal, Jim Mickle’s Mulberry Street, Chris Gentry’s Right at Your Door, the last two of which were screened with directors in attendance. Hell is a City also included the world premier of local Maurice Devereaux’ End of the Line and the North American premiere of Minoru Kawasi’s The World Sinks Except Japan.

The Signal

An important retrospective of Russia’s genre cinema gave the audience the opportunity to (re)discover various obscure Soviet films, from many different periods. Russian Fantastika : From the Tsars to the Stars gave adventurous cinephiles the opportunity to see films as varied as Vasili’s Zhuraviev’s Cosmic Voyage (1936), Karen Shakhnazarov’s Zero City (1968) but most importantly, one of the greatest masterpieces of world cinema  to adventurous cinema, regardless of genre: Tarkovsky’s Stalker (1979).

After a tribute to Ray Harryhausen in 2005, Fantasia gave a 2^nd Honorific Lifetime Achievement Award to Jean Rollin, applauding his distinctive and vital take on fantastical cinema. Quite moved, the artist appeared in person to receive his prize during a ceremony preceding a special showing of Les Frissons des Vampires. Rollin was also in attendance for the showing of his testamentary film La Nuit des Horloges.

Jean Rollin at Fantasia

Other than Devereaux and Kawasi, whose The Rug Cop was also on the program, many Fantasia regulars were back that year, to the joy of many cinephiles. Larry Fessenden, Lloyd Kaufman and Sion Sono also came back to Montreal to show The Last Winter (Montreal Premiere), Poultrygeist: Night of the Chicken Dead (Canadian Premiere) and Exte: Hair Extension (Canadian Premiere), respectively. The Festival also took advantage of Sono’s appearance to show the brand new Hazard. The Asian selection is particularly anticipated, as it marks the return of some of their best filmmakers, namely Kim Ki-Duk with Time, Johnnie To with Exiled, Shinya Tsukamoto with Nighmare Detective, Kiyoshi Kurosawa with Retribution, Jo Dong-Oh’s The Restless and the indispensable Takashi Miike with Sun-Scarred, Big Bang Love and the delirious Zebraman.

David Arquette

And, as always, the newcomers were welcomed like kings. Given a torrential wave of applause for his extremely anticipated slasher homage Hatchet, Adam Green’s got similar praise for his second feature Spiral. Thaï director Chookiat Sakweerakul took over the Hall Theater with his unsettling 13 Beloved, one of the biggest screening-events of 2007, which later won the public prize for Best Asian Film that year. The public also discovered Mai Tominaga with the North American premiere of Wool 100%, M dot Strange and Won Shin-Yeon with the Canadian Premiere of We Are the Strange and North American Premiere of A Bloody Aria, respectively, but also The Canadian Premieres of The Wizard of Gore, Anna Biller’s Viva, David Arquette’s The Tripper and the World Premieres of Gregory Wilson’s The Girl Next Door and Guillaume Taveron and Hiroshi Toda’s Sakura no Kage, shown with directors in attendance. Fantasia also welcomed comedian Nicolas Bro, Danish film star for the premieres of Offscreen and Adam’s Apples as well as the controversial director Uwe Boll, for the world premieres of Postal and In The Name of The King.

Memories of Matsuko

Starting on July 5^th with the Canadian premiere of animation film Michael Arias’ Tekon Kinkreet, Fantasia ended on July 23^rd, with additional showings of Tetsuya Nakashima’s Memories of Matsuko, feature the Jury, helmed by Yves Pelletier, awarded the Best Film Prize. Once again, the Festival ended on a successful note, reaching a record of 81,000 attendees, a 4,000 increase from the previous year, and imposing itself as a film event to be reckoned with, not only on the local scene but on the international circuit as well.

(Translation: Ariel Esteban Cayer)

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Event photos by:

2004, 2007 – Pierre Roussell

2005 – Pierre Roussell and Jerry Scott

2006 – Cindy Canavan and Pierre Roussell

About the author:

Kier-La Janisse

Kier-La Janisse is a film writer, publisher, producer, acquisitions executive for Severin Films and an Adjunct Associate Professor in the School of Communication and Creative Arts at Deakin University. She is the author of Cockfight: A Fable of Failure (2024), House of Psychotic Women: An Autobiographical Topography of Female Neurosis in Horror and Exploitation Films (2012/2022) and A Violent Professional: The Films of Luciano Rossi (2007) and has been an editor on numerous books including Warped & Faded: Weird Wednesday and the Birth of the American Genre Film Archive (2021) and Satanic Panic: Pop-Cultural Paranoia in the 1980s (2015). She wrote, directed and produced the award-winning documentary Woodlands Dark and Days Bewitched: A History of Folk Horror (2021), and produced the acclaimed blu-ray box sets All the Haunts Be Ours: A Compendium of Folk Horror (2021) and The Sensual World of Black Emanuelle (2023).